A Drop Size Distribution (DSD)-Based Model for Evaluating the Performance of Wet Radomes for Dual-Polarized Radars

A novel analytical method is presented for evaluating the electrical performance of a radome for a dualpolarized phased-array antenna under rain conditions. Attenuation, reflections, and induced cross polarization areevaluated for different rainfallconditionsand radome types. The authors presenta modelfor estimating the drop size distribution on a radome surface based on skin surface material, area, inclination, and rainfall rate. Then,amultilayerradomemodelbasedonthetransmission-line-equivalentcircuitmodelisusedtocharacterize the radome’s scattering parameters. Numerical results are compared with radar data obtained in the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) and Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) systems, and good agreement is found.